Chapter 3
Violet
I craned my neck all around the office.
Everyone was already deep in their work. Just like I should be.
But instead I was staring at the cute little wrapped package on my desk.
It was in the same wrapping paper as yesterday, a goat wearing a Christmas wreath around its neck stamped in a repeating pattern on kraft paper.
Again, there was no note.
Last night I’d spent some time trying to figure out who could have given me the anonymous ornament… and why. I wasn’t interested in any of the men in the office. They were pleasant enough, and some of them were handsome. But they didn’t make my heart beat faster.
There was only one man who made my heart triphammer in my chest every time he came around. And that was the maintenance man who took care of the building where I worked.
He was big, brawny and built.
His name was Easton, but I had a secret nickname for him. I called him Brawny, after the guy on the famous paper towel package.
But there was no way Easton was the one dropping off these little packages on my desk every morning. The man was gorgeous.
Thick.
Tall.
Buff as hell.
And he had these dreamy brown eyes that made me go mute every time he looked at me.
A man like that probably rode bulls on his weekends and felled trees with a single swing of his axe.
Easton was a pipe dream.
A quiet muse.
Someone to make my fantasies a little more vibrant.
He’d been on my mind more than a couple of times when I’d pulled out my magic wand vibrator late at night.
In fact, he’d been the only object of my self-care fantasies since the first time I saw him. I’d imagined riding that bucking bronco at least three times a week for the last six months.
I looked back down at the gift on my desk. This wasn’t from him. No way.
This was probably from the receptionist, Nicole. She was such a sweetheart, and she knew I was sad being away from my family during the holidays. Or maybe it was from Lenore.
Carefully, I unwrapped the package, mystified that someone was going out of their way to gift things to me. If they knew how lonely I’d been, they’d realize their kindness was making my Christmas bright. I only wished I knew who it was so I could properly thank them.
There were two chocolate treats inside the box. Pulling out a tiny note, I saw that they were from a place called Stephanie and Cory’s Sweets. That was the local bakery that I hadn’t been to yet.
The note said, ‘I hope you love these turtle doves as much as we enjoyed making them! Love, Stephanie and Cory.’
Hm, but no hints as to the sender.
I bit into one of the chocolates, and oh-my-lord, my entire world shifted on its axis. This was the best piece of chocolate I’d ever had in my life. I moaned quietly while I had a mouth orgasm.
Whoever my secret gifter was, they had excellent taste in decadent things.
But right now, I needed to dig into my accounts.
There was a discrepancy I’d spotted on the Bear Creek Lodge account.
The budget was out of whack, and it looked like it was running nine thousand dollars over.
I knew I hadn’t made a mistake in my calculations, so I needed to figure this out before I got in trouble.
You don’t just lose nine thousand dollars. It had to be here somewhere.